The most hurtful thing you can say to a dog owner?

I think I had my second encounter with a dog hater today. The woman was around forty and for some reason she was hanging by the door that leads to the bike room (where the residents of this building can keep their bikes so people won't steal them). I don't know what she was doing there, because these apartments are for students only and she looked nothing like a student in her posh flower dress and high heels. Anyway. Papu usually barks once or twice if we meet strangers on our way out. Sometimes she barks like crazy, but since we live in the second floor (or first floor depending how you count) we are usually out before anyone gets annoyed. I know she shouldn't bark at all, but we haven't exactly done anything to stop it because

a) the hall is usually empty
b) nobody is bothered because people here are used to barking dogs

And you probably guessed it; Papu started to bark and since the woman wasn't moving anywhere and other people were making noise in the bike room, she kept barking. When we get close to the woman she said "what's wrong with your dog?!" ("mikä sun koiraas vaivaa") and since I didn't bother to answer she continued "train your dog" ("kouluttaisit ton koiras"). Her tone was really aggressive and the things she said made me seriously upset. It was hard not to cry when we finally got out.

Papu means the world to me and I have done my absolute best to take care of her. Life has not been so easy with her and I have tried so effing hard that you have no idea. God knows how many times I have cried over her because the things have looked so hopeless. And after all that pain and tears and misery, suggesting that I have failed with her is the most hurtful thing anyone could ever say to me. I know that Papu is still very far from the perfect dog she could be, but I'm doing OK with her. She's OK too. We are getting there eventually. I'm not a failure as a dog owner.



And I love my dog no matter how loud she barks.

But that woman obviously wasn't a dow owner herself. Dog owners know that other people's dogs are a very sensitive subject. Their like babies, and you definitely can't say to a mother that her kid's shitty even when it's completely true.

Shopping baskets ARE dirty

Do you remember when I blogged about shopping baskets earlier this year? Probably not, so let me repeat the main part briefly:

Shopping basket is another environmental choice by us, though now you might wonder why we don't use canvas bags like everybody else. News for you: they're just not as handy. When you walk to a store, you have basically two options: You can pick one huge family-sized shopping cart or you can choose one big dirty (they're always dirty!) plastic basket. Not very appealing. But ha! We have our own perfectly sized clean shopping basket with us. And you walk out with the very same basket. Very convenient.

Our friend Elina was the first one to comment on the statement about dirty shopping baskets. She said that she has not noticed such thing. I don't blame her, because many people don't pay attention to these things. They just take the first basket that looks good. But really, they're dirty. Just read on.

Couple weeks ago I read from a Finnish news paper that they have actually made a small study about how clean the shopping baskets really are. The study wasn't probably completely accurate or reliable, but the result was that almost all the shopping basket they tested were flooding with bacteria. And when it comes to food, the shopping baskets should be clean. Sometimes the food can even touch the basket! Just think about bread or lettuce in those open bags... Doesn't this completely put you off?

I took pictures of the magazine, and luckily the quality is quite high. It's easy to read if you just click to enlarge. The story is also online.





The point of this blog post was to prove that I'm not crazy and paranoid because I use my own shopping basket. It's actually quite smart. And I know that my shopping basket maybe dirty too... but at least it's our own dirt.

One stinking dog poop story and some very, very exciting news

It seems that I love stories about dog poop... A little while ago I was walking with Papu when we bumped into a big dog we knew from the dog park. I said "hi" to the owner and checked the dog's name because I wasn't sure if I remembered it correctly. The dogs also greeted each other. Then we started to move on since we were heading to the same direction. Everything was pretty usual, until his dog started to poop and he did nothing, I mean absolutely NOTHING to pick up after his dog and he made no excuse why he wasn't doing so. And I was standing right next to him!

Finnish law says that in all urban areas it is compulsory to pick up the dog poop. There's absolutely nothing voluntary in it. If you get a dog and you live in the city, you have to pick up the dog poop too. And it wasn't any shady forest we were walking in, but a very popular and lovely pedestrian street. And the dog pooped on the lawn where Papu usually walks! I thought it was very irresponsible and plain stupid.

People who don't pick up dog poop are responsible for feeding dog hatred. No wonder there are people who don't like dogs if all they see is a smelly mess! I think it's my responsibility as a dog owner to pick up poop so the neighborhood stays dog friendly. There are hundreds of dogs in this area, and if we all suddenly stop picking up dog poop, they would eventually ban dogs from public places. The vision is so not nice. Besides, I don't like to see piles of poop either when I'm walking with Papu, and I don't know who does. Probably those people who don't do their share to keep places clean.

In case you're wondering, there is actually one good enough excuse for not to pick up after the dog: If the dog has upset stomach, there might not be anything to pick up at all...

Enough with the dog poop now. I have other news to share too.

My mother found a thin mattress from the flea market and she thought it would make a nice dog bed. I agreed with her and bought it. My mother later donated me some giraffe fabric and I sewed a cover for the mattress. I think it looks really nice and colorful now:



There mattress is actually folded in half in that picture above. Since it's so big you can easily make a nice dog burrito with it:



Or you can simply open it to make enough room for two dogs:



And we actually need room for two dogs... because we are getting a NEW PUPPY!!!

How to give eye drops to a resisting dog

J.R. is away in the woods. His school sucks because it makes him to stay away from me. We get to see each other on the weekends, but this painful thing is going to last for six whole weeks. At least he has some serious studying to do. Me, on the other hand, I have nothing to do. In two days I have already spent more time in the dog park than we usually do in a week. I'm not even sure if Papu enjoys it anymore.

So, meanwhile in my small little doxie universe... Papu got some kind of an eye issue when we were in Viiala. According to the vet there might be some foreign allergens there that irritate Papu's eyes. Last time the vet gave us regular antibiotic eyedrops, but this time we got cortisone eyedrops. Three drops a day for 10 days. It sounds so innocent, right?

Papu hates when we give her eyedrops. I don't wonder, though. They are freezing cold and she doesn't know why we are forcing her to get them. It usually takes both of us to hold her before we manage to put the drops in her eyes. And suddenly I was supposed to do that all by myself. So not awesome.

There are different kind of tricks of how to give eyedrops to a resisting dog. Here's my take on it:

First I put Papu between my legs. I try lure her there instead of just calling her to come. I don't want her to associate her name with bad things.


Then I wrap a blanket gently around her tiny head.


I pull the blanket tight (it's very stretchy, so it doesn't strangle her) and hold it still with my knees.


I hold the rest of the body still with my legs.


And now I'm ready to give her the drops! I can use my both hands so it's pretty easy to hold her head still.


Oddly, Papu isn't so resistant with the eyedrops anymore. She still doesn't like them, but I can give them to her without any special tricks. It seems that she has just accepted it. Or maybe she thinks it's better to just let me give them than to go through the blanket torture...

Tagged!

I got tagged today by my Twitter friend @CheekyTart. I don't know why, but getting tagged makes me feel good. It makes me feel like important and special and popular and those are all really good feelings to have.

So let's start with this mini interview!

1- What’s your staple meal (ie. what meal do you cook most often when you can’t be bothered to be adventurous) ?
I'm not sure if I have ever prepared a meal by myself. I seriously don't know how to cook. Sometimes J.R. tells me what to do with the ingredients while he washed the dishes, but I have never done it alone. I wouldn't know where to start and how to proceed, so I don't really have a staple meal either. If I had to make a meal by myself... I would probably make something with noodles. You can never go wrong with noodles, right?

2- What do you want to be when you grow up?
I talk a lot about this with J.R. and I still don't really know. I think I would love to be a web designer or a web developer. I want to code for a living. I just don't know if my skills are ever enough for that.


3- What book are you reading at the moment (if any)
I just read "The Friday Night Knitting Club" today (I usually read the whole book in one day if I start one) and it was pretty nice. It's a knitting novel. I also borrowed the sequel, Knit Two, from the library too and I'm going to read it next.

4- How do you relax?
My life isn't technically so stressful, so I don't do anything especial to relax. I think I'm relaxed all the time. But the most relaxed I feel when I watch TV with J.R. and Papu, or when I'm reading a good book. Sometimes knitting makes me relaxed too.


5- What color are the interior walls of your home?
We don't own the apartment we live in, so the walls are all white. We have decorated the walls with signs, paintings, nice pictures, cool ads and some handcrafts... With all this white you really need to do some magic to prevent yourself from getting crazy.


6- What is your guiltiest pleasure?
J.R. and I eat super chocolate muffins (that I bake, because I can bake) when we watch the Biggest Loser.

7- What time is bedtime and getting up time?
I go to bed too late nowadays, but I blame J.R. He usually decided when we go to bed. I don't have a static wake up time. I would like to wake up 9am... but that depends on the universe and everything.


8- How long do you spend reading blogs (per day or per week)?
Google Reader Trends says it like this "From your 140 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 2,123 items," I have subsribed to way too many blogs, but I don't read them all. I usually just browse through the pictures and if something special caught my attention, then I read the text too. Only some of my biggest favorites get my full attention. Anyway. I don't think I can calculate how much time I spend reading blogs. I've lost the count by now.

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There is only one I would like to tag today. That's you, J.R. Shape up, it's your turn to update the Yarn-Loving Couple! People desperately want to see that new cool bolero thingy you knitted for me.